El Tercer Elemento
New York, US 2009
This New York workshop was very special, but not for the reasons I usually mention. Or should I say to be fair that photography was only part of the reason of this success? What touched me the most was the profound humanity of the three human beings that took my workshop for different reasons. I like to believe that they were brought together by destiny. We had the opportunity to bond, to share life and some meals with my family. Stan would talk in English with Pietro and Stefano in a very sweet way. Dallas spoke to Sissy and the boys in a Spanish with a Cuban slang, asked about Sissy’s recipes, and Laura at her young age showed great gentleness and maturity. But the aspect I appreciated the most was that they all understood that sometimes life ask you to look somewhere else. I’ll be forever grateful.
After ten days of hard work and tough editing they all had very interesting images. I kept talking about the importance of secondary elements in the making of a good image. Dallas took my sentence to the next level by referring to the third element that would really change the outcome of an image. Since that moment we kept looking, half jokingly, for the third element. After a while, we decided that this would be a good name for our group.
On our last day, we did the final editing of their images. Several images were just dropped. In the end we chose some of Laura’s images on daily life in the parks for being sensitive and intimate. Dallas had a good series on Coney Island that I found very inspiring. I suggested to her to continue working on it. To my great happiness, she said she would. She will be back to NY in September. Stan continued his prowling on the streets of New York always looking for those special fleeting moments that turn ordinary life into something magical. We chose the best and I strongly suggested to him to continue. Please take a look. You will not be disappointed.
EB
